PHOTOGRAPH OF MARY TODD, WHO MARRIED ABRAHAM LINCOLN IN 1842 Lincoln was now 33 years of age. This negative was taken some years later at the time of Lincoln's inauguration for the Presidency, and presents her in the gown worn at the Inaugural Ball Original Life Negative in Collection of Americana-Owned by Mr. Frederick H. Meserve of New York THE POLITICAL PRINCIPLES OF LINCOLN MBITION 1s a noble comrade, but a dangerous master. It walks beside a man as a faithful friend, but when once given the reins of control it becomes a despot. A Lincoln's mastery of himself was his greatest safeguard in life. He never allowed his political aspirations to overcome his principles, and, while this for a time retarded his progress, it ultimately proved to be the stepping stone upon which he rose to the fullest heights of ambition. He was forced to overcome the same difficulties that beset every man who enters politics. The party leaders, who were unable to mold him according to their desires, gave him but little consideration. This reason which keeps so many men out of politics is in reality the very reason why they should enter them. Strong men of honest purpose need never fear the ultimate outcome of their contest with corruption. Lincoln's failure to secure the nomination for congress only strengthened his resolution, and on the following election he swept his district by the largest majority that ever had been given to a Whig candidate. The tall, gaunt figure of the young congressman of Illinois, on the streets of Washington, amused the passers-by as he walked to and from the National Capitol; his books tied in a bandana handkerchief, hanging on the end of a cane over his shoulder. While he was considered droll, he did not make a very deep impress on the statesmen of the times, owing largely to the fact that his viewpoint was seldom political or economic, but almost wholly moral. The war with Mexico, and the victory of the American arms, inspired the American spirit of progress, but Lincoln weighed its issue wholly in the scales of the old precept, "Whatever ye would that men should do to you, do ye even so to them." His speeches, coming when the country was elated with military glory, brought denunciation upon him and cost him his political popularity. Political agreements, similar to those which are still practiced today, deprived him of re-election and he returned to the dingy law office in the back room of a two-story building on the square at Springfield. Upon his retirement to private life it was believed that the untactful country lawyer had passed forever from political memory. The politicians administered "a decisive blow" to the slavery agitation with the Missouri Compromise, only to learn that the heart of humanity cannot be suppressed, and to witness that unforeseen force, Lincoln, being carried to the leadership of the tremendous economic problem that was soon to make him the supreme figure in American politics. Photograph taken while Lincoln, age 45, was engaged in the Missouri Compromise in 1854-Original taken in an itinerant gallery in Chicago, for George Schneider, editor of "Staats Zeitung" THE IMPULSE THAT HELD LINCOLN STEADFAST T HE man who takes the world philosophically can never be permanently beaten. Lincoln was greatly disappointed when his political party set him aside, but in referring to it, in his life as a country lawyer, he said: "I have always been a fatalist and what is to be, will be, or rather, as Hamlet says, 'There is a divinity that shapes our ends, rough hew them how we will." " Lincoln admitted that he was losing interest in politics when the repeal of the Missouri Compromise, "stirred him as he never had been stirred before." It aroused him to such an extent that he again entered the arena and became the candidate for the United States Senate. The abolition movement was beginning to sweep New England. The people began to rally to the new standard by the tens of thousands. A great political party, for the altruistic purpose of equality to all men, was being organized. Lincoln became one of the first Republicans. The oratory of this strange, serious man seemed to inspire the hopes of the people. They looked upon him in bewilderment as they saw this giant of the woods, in a black alpaca coat, with his sleeves rolled up, hammering away at the institution which he believed to be unjust. His appeal was always one of peace, for in his heart or mind there had not yet been a suggestion of the clash of arms that was to come through his leadership. He recognized that slavery was an established institution and that its property rights were legal and just according to the economic system of the times, but he believed that it was unworthy of the high principles of American self-government and that in the interest of civilization we should dissolve the institution by purchasing the chattels from their owners and extending liberty and freedom to all men, regardless of color or race. "Our political problem now is, 'can we as a nation continue together permanently-forever-half slave and half free,' the problem is too mighty for me. May God superintend the solution," he remarked prophetically. The one dominant note in Lincoln's character was hope. He believed that hope was the saving grace in humanity. "Free labor has the inspiration of hope, pure slavery has no hope," he said. "The power of hope upon human exertion and happiness is wonderful." When the Republican party came into existence, Lincoln, now forty-seven years of age, stood on the convention floor and held his hearers spellbound; men cheered and women wept; the audience rose to its feet enmasse. The great populace had found their champion at last in this frontier lawyer. First photograph of Lincoln circulated throughout the country for campaign Ambrotype taken in 1858, shortly after Lincoln's speech at Galesburg, |